Rants on Cycling and on Life:
Photos of people and bicycles that pass in front of my camera

9.17.2009

the Specialized Tri Cross Comp is back on the road...

this needs a glancea little proofinga little addition and a little subrationbut not now and not tonightit gets posted because I started on this topic before and BLOGGER messedd up my puntuationless style and made one big paragraph

it is a tad embarrassing that this could happenit is hard to believe that someone could let things slip like thisyet somehow it did happenthe worst part about it was it was me that did it

two years ago after the Charm City event I bought some Empella FroggLeggs from Rob Campbell of NCVCI was stoked to get the brakes because I had been having some brake chatter issuesthere had been talk about a longer yoke on various cyclocross forumsbut I felt that the after market brakes over the stock shimano brakes would give me more brakeing power as well as resolving the front brake chatter issue

well... it is hard to believe that this all started two years agoamazing... embarrassingly amazing that something like this could happen

so... I had this almost new brake set from Rob Campbellthen it happened... not a big deal... but a bit of a speed bumpa speed bump that managed to slow me down for two yearsyes... two years

with the bike in the stand I was doing a very basic repair... just swapping out the brakesthe rear brakes went on with the basic easy that cross brakes go onthen when I was removing the second of the front two stock cantilevers it happenedthe brake boss pulled out from the forkF_CK!

it was not such a big issue... I had the Jamis Novaa short time prior I had cracked my Jamis cyclocross frameJamis warrantied it then I had my buddy Max build it upso I had a bike that was raceable

the season went as planned... I raced my green Jamis Nova rather than my Darth Vader Black Specialized Tri Crossthen the season ended and I hung up my cross bikesbefore I knew it and it was fall and I had not fixed the Specialized Tri Cross yet...well... the season had started and the Jamis was making my happyso... I never bothered to get the Specialized back in working order

the tri cross migrated around the basementout of the way for thisout of the way for thattires were stolen for the Jamis Nova

before I knew it the season was up and the cyclocross bikes were hanging collecting dust againas if I could not see it coming it happenedsure enough.... summer ended and fall beganand well... my Specialized Tri Cross Comp was still in pieces leaned against the wall in my basement

I knew I had to make it happen before the start of the seasonif it did not happen now... well... it may never happenhere is the perfect deadlinecyclocross season for the cyclocross bike

in anticipation of Charm City I started to gather what I neededa few things... a few things more than the brake boss

in a less than valiant effort I twiddled my thumbs as I asked around at various bike shops if they had brake bossesnever did I find themI was unable to find the replacement brake bossesI was unable to find cycling shoes that fit my European 48-49 feet

through a DCMTB QBP order I got a few thingstires mainly... then some tubesthen at DCMTB cycling team meeting at our new shop sponsor The Family Bike Shop I got essentially what I needed

there was a plan to swap out the classic road drop bars for some mountain bike risersthis involved swapping out the brake levers and shifterswhich sent me digging around and then asking around

what I thought was going to be a quick and easy reanimation turned out to be anything but

in great anticipation I had the bike in the stand and started taking things apart and putting things on

it intrigued me to remove the oversized stem with its large shimthe new world parts were to be replaced with my old school crap

without much digging I found a Specialized stem of pretty much the same length and the same risehaving multiple choices of slightly uses and more than slightly used I put the only new and unused mountain bike bars I had these were the bars that came stock on my Jamis Exile 29er... bars I immediate replaced with some Salsa Risers that I have enjoyed on a number of my bikes

the shifters were aquired from the DCMTB communal parts bina purchase or a hook up from our team's SRAM sponsorship

knowing I had an issue with my disc brake levers it occurred to me that I wanted something oldthe levers on the Jamis Nova are two finger Deore that is old... I am not sure if Shimano was even doing a Deore line yet... just Deorethis caused me to reach out to the teammy brother Marc came forward with some SRAM carbon levers that he won as a Clydesdale at the Hoo Haa many years backmy brother Marc a Clydesdale? yes... but no more

things were coming together...the bicycle stone soup was starting to take shape

convienient to the timing of the build was a monthy DCMTB team meeting at The Family Bike Shop shop owner and single speeding friend Jonathan Seibold hooked me up with three different brake bosses, some washers for my pedals, those tires I ordered, a couple of nine speed cassette spacers because I could not find mine and some Shimano Shoes that fit my feetyes... shoes that fit my feetif you only knew how many bicycle shops I passed through without anything even closemassively large or too tighteven the effort to order from Zappos had shoes it pleased me to find replacement shoes because what I had were starting to look like sandals

SCORE BONUS!

some sport level Shimano shoes and all the fixing to make it happen

when i got home I was too full of beer and pizza to continue any further with the build

the next day I caught up with Cargo Mike downtown on M Streetwe discussed the idea of him coming over to help me get this thing togetherhe was aware that I had some issues more than just a few turns of the wrench

without any tom sawyer huck fin promises of high adventure cargo mike was at my house roughly around the same time lisa and I got home from back to school night

into the basement and straight to the bikeI gathered a second light source to help the processthen started gathering tools as Cargo Mike started to to access the situation

tools were everywhereseveral tool boxes housing various tools with no logic or reason

no reason to go step by step through the check up that became major surgerybut understand that the deraileur hanger was bent and we learned that SRAM Shifters do not work with the majority of the Shimano deraileurs

then it happened the build had worked its way full circlethe bike was complete in all areas other than the brake bossless front fork

there was initial satisfaction that the Family Bike Shop provided brake bosses offered a solutionbut no... there were too many threadsthe barrel had the right diameterand the right threadingbut there were too many threadsan alternate brake boss would need to be foundafter much searching it was decided that the right length brake boss would have to be cut and not found

the hack saw was replaced with the dremelthings would have been easier with a vise

Cargo Mike did the work as I tried to make sense with the chaos that is my basement

BINGO! BONUS! DISCO!

the brake bosses were in placethen it was discovered that the brakes were missing pieces

in the two year migration around my basement the brakes somehow got separate from some of their partsthe fork bolts were missing but worse was the missing cyclocross style brake straddle cablemore than just a wire cable... really it is about the spooky/empella/whatever cyclocross brake style

HOLY PISS SHIT F_CK!

much time was spent trying to find these missing partsit was already crazy latebut time was not so much the issueit was clear that the basement and all of its chaos had swallowed these partsthis parts were not to surface on this evening and more than likely never again

it was lateto make the bike ride-able Cargo Mike put on what brakes would work without that type of straddle cableto the humor of it all the bike was rebuilt two years later with the same Shimano brakes that it had before the boss came free of the forksure the handlebars had been swappedbut the bike and its brake issues were back where they had startedyes there was an tektro anti brake chatter device that my brother had hooked me up withbut we were not where we wanted to bethe front brake was back to its stock shittinesCargo Mike gathered his gear and took to the dark streets

the next morning came and I had mixed feelings about the state of the Specialized Tri Crossit seemed as if my energy would have been better spent in freshening up the Jamis Nova to make it race=able for Charm City

as I sipped my coffee I tried to get an idea where I could get this part and how much would it cost meemail messages went out to the DCMTB team list servera FACEBOOK Update on the topic went out as well

a few emails came in and my brother had me looking the cyclocross world dot com pagesome people gave me tips on shops or friends at shopsthings were looking upthen an IM came up on FACEBOOKChris Merriam thought he may have what I needed in his bicycle stable

things were looking upnothing had been ordered but I was feeling betterthings were looking up and there was not a bicycle shop with in a hundred miles within two hours of opening

the kids were dropped off at school and I took a slightly longer walk with the dog before heading in for an eleven o clock start for my eight hours in the salt mines

on my way down the block I looked for my Blackberry before crossing the streetnothing... no sight of my Blackberryinstead I saw my Aussie friend John Shovelanhe turned around and came over for a quick helloas we caught up I saw what I thought was Chris and Libbeywhen Chris crossed the end of the Park Road Bridge he was in an upright no handed position that allowed himself the freedom to pull something out of his bag

the physiological nature of my body changedwhen Chris Merriam pulled this rabbit out of his hat I could not believe my eyes12 hours had not passed since I realized this missing parttwo hours had not passed since I had started asking around for this part

with a trip to Revolution Cargo Mike was given the pleasure of finishing the job

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